Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Small Business Marketing Basics

In order to successfully grow your business, you’ll need to attract and then work to retain your base of satisfied customers. Marketing emphasizes the value of the customer to the business, and has two guiding principles:All company policies and activities should be directed toward satisfying customer needs.Profitable sales volume is more important than maximum sales volume. To best use these principles:Marketing programs, though widely varied, are all aimed at convincing people to try out or keep using particular products or services. Business owners should carefully plan their marketing strategies and performance to keep their market presence strong. Conducting Market ResearchSuccessful marketing requires timely and relevant market information. An inexpensive research program, based on questionnaires given to current or prospective customers, can often uncover dissatisfaction or possible new products or services.Market research will also identify trends that affect sales and profitability. Population shifts, legal developments, and the local economic situation should be monitored to quickly identify problems and opportunities. It is also important to keep up with competitors' market strategies.Creating a Marketing StrategyA marketing strategy identifies customer groups which a particular business can better serve than its target competitors, and tailors product offerings, prices, distribution, promotional efforts and services toward those segments. Ideally, the strategy should address unmet customer needs that offer adequate potential profitability. A good strategy helps a business focus on the target markets it can serve best.Target MarketingMost small businesses don’t have unlimited resources to devote to marketing; however, the SBA wants you to know that you can still see excellent returns while sticking to your budget if you focus on target marketing. By concentrating your efforts on one or a few key market segments, you’ll reap the most from small investments. There are two methods used to segment a market:Customer segmentation: Identifying those people most likely to buy the product or service and targeting those groups.Want help with your small business marketing and printing needs? Call MI Printing 623.582.1302 and lets us help you promote your small business.Presented ByMI Printing, LLC Phone: 623.582.1302Email: sales@printinginaz.comhttp://printinginaz.com